Viacom Sues Operators of Online Channel Playing “Classic” Nickelodeon — The site “offers free 24/7 streaming plus a premium on-demand service with a tab of $35.99 for a year” of numerous Nickelodeon shows, but its website claims it can do so legally under fair use. Which means if you support Viacom, you must hate fair use.
These Charts Show Why The US Government Should Stop Setting Prices For Songs and Recordings — Music is unique among copyright subject matter in that the rates for many of its most popular uses are regulated by the government in some fashion. The Trichordist illustrates what happens as a result.
Twenty Years Down the Road: A Q&A With Paul Goldstein, Author of Copyright’s Highway — A great interview with copyright giant Paul Goldstein. “… it would be a serious mistake for policy makers (and I include the courts) to reflexively reach for a new exemption or an expanded fair use any time copyright appears to stand in the way of the roll out of some new technology. It would be a mistake because the characteristic impediment in all of these cases is not copyright, but the transaction costs associated with securing licenses under copyright.”
Who’s that girl? The curious case of Leah Palmer — “Ruth recently discovered that for the past three years somebody has been routinely lifting photographs of her, her family and friends from social networks, and setting up a network of fake media profiles of them – which all communicate with each other.” One of her only means of recourse is asserting her copyright interest in the photos to have them taken down, a reminder that copyright is not solely for commercial exploitation.
Annual USTR Notorious Markets Report Points Fingers, Includes Domain Registrars For First Time — “The fifth annual Office of the United States Trade Representative review of ‘notorious’ intellectual property infringing markets has been released, pointing out the world’s biggest problem commercial-scale markets. And for the first time, the report takes aim at internet domain name registrars.”